There’s normally a huge dividing line in in product reviews that makes you ultimately feel one way or another about a product. The Nexus 4 doesn’t fit that bill. It’s probably the best mobile phone we’ve seen released all year, BUT it doesn’t support 4G LTE coverage. If it were still 2009, this phone would be an incredible step forward in technology, but considering most networks are trying to make the move towards 4G LTE coverage as opposed to the older GSM and 3G technologies, it’s hard to give this phone a full 100% vote from us. Instead, we’ll just have to applaud its efforts as a piece of hardware and ignore the fact that it doesn’t support newer networks.

Outside

This phone is sturdy. Not quite as rugged as those flip-phones that were coated with what seemed like concrete a few years ago, but the Nexus 4 can take a beating. The phone should hold up well with falls, scratches, and attempts to crack the screen. It’s covered in Gorilla glass to help keep the whole thing clean and tidy despite most peoples’ clumsiness.

Speed

Wow (can we leave it at that?).

Inside there’s a 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor (Snapdragon S4 to be exact) that really zips through tasks without any hesitation. There’s also a full 2 gigabytes of RAM and the Adreno 320 graphics processor. If that doesn’t mean much to you, know that apps like Google Earth that require a lot of graphical intense processing won’t lag one bit. You will be able to use it fluidly just like they demonstrate in phone commercials and without any problems in games or other intensive endeavors.

Display

The Nexus 4 has a 4.7 inch display that packs 320 pixels per inch. It also has a resolution of 1280 x 768. The display is phenomenal, but there’s a little bit of crispness that’s lacking. The colors tend to be a little less sharp than I’d like, but there’s still a beautiful display at the heart of this device. It lacks a little bit of the definition that the iPhone 5 retina display has, but considering this phone is priced at almost half the cost of an iPhone, I can live with seeing a few pixels here and there.

Bonuses

A nice little addition to this phone is the NFC chip in the back similar to other Nexus phones. The NFC chip allows you to use features like Google Wallet so you can pay with your debit card or credit card with your cell phone. In addition to that, you can use it for wireless charging, which is a great feeling when you just drop your phone on top of the charging dock.

Nexus products have never really been the best selling phones or tablets on the market, but this one is hopefully a change from that norm. The phone’s hardware is spectacular and quick and the design of the phone is nothing short of beautiful. Hopefully you won’t hesitate to pick up an unlocked version of this phone for $350 (16gigabytes) when your current contract runs out.

Nexus 10

As said with the Nexus 4, this device is almost damn near perfect. The hardware is incredibly quick and the screen is permanently shiny. Unfortunately, although there’s so much to look at on the outside and technical level, there just aren’t enough apps in the Android marketplace to take advantage of the beautiful screen that the Nexus 10 offers.

It’s sad to open a review this way, but despite the tablet being blazing fast and beating out the iPad in just about every department in terms of technical specifications, there are over a quarter million applications in the app store for the iPad to use with it and that has to be worth something. At the moment, customers are preferring the Nexus 7 tablet because it more closely resembles a phone than a tablet. This helps continue the cycle of people not wanting to purchase tablets because there are no apps and developers not developing apps because there are no customers. It’ll take a long shot of customers to buy the Nexus 10 to kick start development on necessary and ultimately beneficial big screen tablet apps on the Android marketplace.

Display

Let’s kick things into high gear to try and get more people on board with this tablet so that developers actually want to develop things for it!

There’s a 10 inch screen (hence the 10 in “Nexus 10”) that has a 2560×1600 resolution display that looks fantastic no matter where you hold it. The colors are bright and vibrant and in my opinion, look a bit better than those found in the newest iPad. Although it would be hard to tell a difference in screen resolution, the color sharpness is no competition for the Nexus 10.

Speed

There’s a 1.7GHz Exynos dual core processor powering the entire thing alongside 2 gigabytes of RAM. This thing soars at speed. There are no lags or stutters anywhere in its operation and it’s extremely easy to switch from application to application.

Battery

The power in this thing is also great and Nexus 10 battery should last at least 2 full working days. Under normal use, the tablet can take a bit of a power drain without needing to be plugged in every few hours.

Cons

Unfortunately, there’s no MicroSD slot on this, so what you buy in the original package is what you’ll end up with in terms of storage. There is a USB port that allows you to connect the device to others, but it doesn’t help too much in terms of storage issues.

All in all, the Nexus 10 is a stellar tablet at a very competitive price – $399 for 16 GB. The hardware specs lead us to believe that if you want a simple tablet to watch movies and play a few games on, this is it. No questions asked. However, if you like to spend hours in the app store looking for new things you can play with or boost your productivity with, the Android marketplace just isn’t there yet. Google has tried to build it up with little success, but here’s to hoping things will be different this time around.